PHILADELPHIA — In NHL circles Willie O’Ree is considered the “Jackie Robinson of hockey.” The 79-year-old O’Ree visited Wells Fargo Center Saturday as part of a joint promotion with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Association, the Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend.

PHILADELPHIA — Claude Giroux couldn’t have been happy Saturday night when he was whistled for an ill-timed but not ill-willed slash with two seconds left in the second period in a tied, touchy-feely game with the New York Rangers.

PHILADELPHIA — Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald took a couple of days to honor the memory of his grandmother last week. He has yet to return to the ice for a game, which leaves him as puzzled as anybody else.

VOORHEES, N.J. — He might be trying to shrug it off, but it can’t be an easy answer for Jake Voracek when asked to explain how he’s misplaced his scoring touch. He’s been a top-3 scorer in the league for much of the year, yet has scored but one goal over his last 14 games, and that was into an empty net.

VOORHEES, N.J. — Ebullient after his first real skate in some eight months, Kimmo Timonen was in a sharing, caring mood Friday morning at the Skate Zone. He talked at length about how good he felt, how much he was looking forward to grinding through a daily work agenda.

VOORHEES, N.J. — If it’s a calm, patient approach the Flyers need to adopt as they prepare for another stress test Thursday night, at least they’ll have the right guy back to help set the low-key tone.

VOORHEES, N.J. — To the shock of no one who heard general manager Ron Hextall’s revelation last week that winger Michael Raffl had “some fluid in his lungs,” Raffl’s recovery has now been set back by what Hextall characterized Tuesday as “a small bout of pneumonia.

PHILADELPHIA — Win 25, Jake Voracek said. Win them with defense, with offense, with goaltending, with odd bounces, with great goaltending, in overtime, in shootouts, on the road, at home. Just win them, 25 of them, 25 of the Flyers’ last 34.

PHILADELPHIA — Kimmo Timonen, perhaps an avid reader of Twitter and certainly a loyal Comcast SportsNet viewer since he doesn’t have much else to do before games, took a gander Thursday at something with his name on it.

PHILADELPHIA — Nick Schultz didn’t bend a knee and pump a fist. He didn’t jump into the arms of a teammate, do a funny dance or as much as talk to the heavens. He didn’t do any of those common goal-scorer antics .

VOORHEES, N.J. — Steve Mason played all but six minutes of the Flyers’ game Tuesday night, overtime and a shootout included. Then he wrapped his recently injured knee in ice — that, and any immediate rampaging enthusiasm.

VOORHEES, N.J. — Presuming the Blizzard of ‘15 or whatever weathercaster nickname this storm will incur doesn’t keep the Flyers from their appointed Tuesday night rounds with the Arizona Coyotes, it might be interesting to see how much of an impact a full week off had on the Flyers’ latest promise of turning this season around.

PHILADELPHIA — You’d think with the likes of Paul Holmgren, Ron Hextall and Craig Berube all standing around them, they’d have figured it out earlier, but either way, the Flyers finally found a remedy Tuesday night to their two-month malaise.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — The Flyers can get as defensive as they dare when trying to explain a season that has gone so awry, but any alibi they might invent could easily be dismissed by anyone who saw their game against the Islanders Monday.

PHILADELPHIA — Rookie center Scott Laughton missed Thursday night’s game against the Canucks due to what only was listed as an upper body injury. Flyers general manager Ron Hextall did not offer a possible timetable for Laughton, who was plastered with a clean check by Washington defenseman Matt Niskanen amid a 1-0 Capitals victory Wednesday night.

WASHINGTON — Craig Berube’s second smart goaltending decision in two games wasn’t enough to overcome his team’s usual case of the shooting shakes Wednesday night, as the visiting Flyers lost 1-0 to the Washington Capitals.

PHILADELPHIA >> In the wake of a 3-1 loss Saturday to the Boston Bruins that apparently caused a wave of delayed delusion to pass through the Flyers’ locker room, head coach Craig Berube summed up the sense of unshakeable confidence his team was still feeling in these first stages of the season’s second half.

PHILADELPHIA — Despite worries that a Steve Mason leg injury was about to throw yet another wrench into the Flyers’ season, he is a go to start his sixth straight game tonight when the Washington Capitals visit the Wells Fargo Center.

VOORHEESS, N.J. — One month. That’s probably about how long the Flyers have to turn a season around. They did it a little more than a year ago, gearing up through a December road trip and cruising from there through an impressive second half into a playoff spot.